Smile Plus

The children of India are smiling. Polio that affected millions of children has been kicked out of India on January 13, 2012! As a Rotarian who was part of Polio Plus, I am happy and proud and smiling. Smiling is something that is understood by everyone despite culture, race, or religion; it is internationally known. “Service with a Smile,” has always been at the core of businesses since the beginning of the 1900s. Research continually proves that this is true; smiling really does increase attractiveness and likability. People who tend to smile produce what is called ‘the effect’, which correlates with greater trust, greater financial earnings, and increased interpersonal cooperation. In a time of increased stress due to cutbacks, high debt, and family stress, employees are often required to work with a distressed public. However, a smile tends to convey respect, patience, empathy, hospitality and compassion. For example, when an employee smiles at a stressed customer, and exhibits excellent listening skills, mostly, there is a report of total satisfaction Research also reports that people receive more help when they smile. Even the smile of a stranger produces more “Good Samaritan” effects on the receiver. When you smile, even memory retrieval of your name is enhanced as is shown in neuroscience research.

True happiness lies in serving others and putting a smile on their faces. People smile when they are happy: full of life and well being: physically, mentally and emotionally. How lovely it would be to visit Planet Earth, if it was the land of a 7 billion smiles. But with the population of our beautiful planet increasing geometrically, so many of the denizens of earth has so little to smile about………

Statistics show that over 38,000 children die every day, due to totally preventable reasons, over 1.4 million babies die as infants and 250000 women die at childbirth or barely survive as they deliver half a dozen babies, they struggle to keep alive. Over a billion of the poorest people live on less than a dollar a day. Mostly Mother Earth is not able to bear the burden of so many people and the terrific pace at which their numbers are growing.

Let us put smiles on the faces of the people at the bottom of the pyramid. Please come up with ideas that could help prevent, 55 million unintended pregnancies. An idea that could help prevent the birth of children whose parents cannot look after them. If we succeed over 22 million abortions wouldn’t take place, 140000 mothers could stay alive and 1.4 million babies wouldn’t die shortly after birth. Let us save lives and make other people smile with happiness.